The Director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP) at King’s College, London, Dr. Randolph Kent, has welcomed the Ashdown report into humanitarian emergency planning which recommends seven key themes for improving the present system - anticipation, resilience, leadership, innovation, accountability, partnership and humanitarian space.

Lord Ashdown was appointed to chair an independent taskforce of experts to review the work of DFID, the UK Government department responsible for disaster planning and relief. The Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR) revealed that Britain “as a nation should be proud of our government’s response”, says Lord Ashdown. But, he adds, “Being good is not going to be good enough if we are to meet the challenges ahead.”

Randolph Kent, who was a member of the HERR team, says he is particularly pleased with the report’s clear warning that “current trends suggest that the scale, frequency, severity and complexity of humanitarian emergencies will continue to increase” and that “a new approach” will be required to meet humanitarian needs in future crises.

Lord Ashdown Review from HFP on Vimeo.

Images of humanitarian crises in our recent past and current experience point to a future of greater and more frequent hazards.  To read more about a current HFP project ' The Humanitarian Innovations Challenge' and to view a short film highlighting these points, please click here.